The Propulsion Research Center is committed to provide an environment that assures that all UAH Propulsion Research Center personnel, customer personnel, students, and visitors are kept safe and that our faculties are not critically damaged by test operations.

To that end, I have developed a Facility Usage Policy that basically states in writing many of the practices that we have followed over the past years. The Facility Usage Policy gives us objective standards the all of our personnel can use to assure that we can perform our experiments and support our customers in a safe and productive manner.

April 1, 2012

UAH Propulsion Research Center – Facility Usage Policy

The Propulsion Research Center (PRC) conducts research, produces publications, and mentors students in advanced propulsion technologies and their applications. The PRC connects the academic research community and propulsion community through interdisciplinary collaboration. Use of the facility requires prior written approval of the PRC Director.

The Propulsion Research Center laboratories were established to provide UAH faculty, staff, and students, state-of-the-art facilities for conducting basic and applied research on propulsion systems and related sciences. The PRC was established to provide students a “hands-on” education in propulsion. The facilities may be used for sponsored research projects, PRC staff and Graduate Student research projects, and approved UAH undergraduate research projects. The Propulsion Research Center acknowledges that hazards are inherent to the nature of the research conducted in the facilities that require strict adherence to facility rules and protocols for anyone engaged in research in the PRC laboratories. PRC facility protocol is as follows:

All PRC Test operations are under the authority of the PRC Director and UAH campus safety practices.

All personnel involved in testing are UAH employees, UAH students under PRC supervision, customers with an active contract with UAH, or those with other formal arrangements agreed to in writing by the University.

All tests involving pressures over 100 psi, high voltage, combustion, or other sources of possibly injury require a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), reviewed and signed by the test Red Team (see below), and approved by the PRC Director.

The tests are conducted by a designated Red Team who has at least one UAH staff member and has at least two members who are Red Cross Safety and CPR/AED Certified.

After any major test anomaly, all PRC test operations are automatically suspended until a determination of the basic cause of the incident is determined and all active SOPs are reviewed in light of the findings of the incident before resuming testing. A verbal report of the incident will be given to the V.P. of Research and a representative of Campus Safety within 24 hours of the incident.